Who Said It? Famous Quotes From the Civil War Quiz

The brutal and lengthy Civil War inspired generals, authors, and presidents to say some memorable lines. Can you tell which historical figure said each quote about the conflict? Take this quiz to find out.

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Question 1 of 30

What year did the Civil War begin?

1860

1861

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces opened fire on the Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

1862

Question 2 of 30

Which Confederate leader wrote, "A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me"?

Jefferson Davis

Stonewall Jackson

Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee wrote this in a letter dated Jan. 23, 1861, to his son, Custis.

Question 3 of 30

Who was the president of the Confederate States of America?

Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Davis was chosen as the provisional president of the Confederacy in February 1861 and, one year later, was inaugurated to a six-year term.

Lincoln said this during his address to the Republican Convention on June 16, 1858.

Question 5 of 30

True or false: Jefferson Davis was a U.S. senator from Mississippi at the time the state seceded from the Union.

true

Jefferson Davis was serving as a U.S. senator from Mississippi when the state seceded from the Union in January 1861.

false

Question 6 of 30

Which Union general said, "The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on"?

George Custer

Ulysses S. Grant

General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union general who said this.

Philip Sheridan

Question 7 of 30

Which Confederate spy said, "If it is a crime to love the South, its cause and its president, then I am a criminal"?

Belle Boyd

Belle Boyd was arrested many times before she was imprisoned in 1862.

William Norris

Rose O'Neal Greenhow

Question 8 of 30

Which Abraham Lincoln speech begins with the words "four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation"?

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863.

First Inaugural Address

Question 9 of 30

Which Southern state was the first to secede?

Georgia

Arkansas

South Carolina

On Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first Southern state to secede when the state legislature voted unanimously to draft an ordinance of secession.

Question 10 of 30

Which Confederate general said, "The Army of Northern Virginia was never defeated. It merely wore itself out whipping the enemy"?

Braxton Bragg

P. G. T. Beauregard

Jubal Early

Lt. Gen. Jubal Early said this of the Confederate unit under his command.

Question 11 of 30

How many states seceded from the Union at the start of the Civil War?

11

In total, 11 Southern states seceded from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

nine

seven

Question 12 of 30

Which Confederate leader said, "If I cared for my life, I would have lost it long ago; wanting to lose it, I cannot throw it away"?

Which Union general said, "My plans are perfect, and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on Bobby Lee, for I shall have none"?

Joshua Chamberlain

William Tecumseh Sherman

Joseph Hooker

Union Gen. Joseph Hooker was defeated by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 and resigned his post as commander of the Army of the Potomac one month later.

Question 16 of 30

True or false: Not including the 11 secessionist states, the Union consisted of 39 states during the Civil War.

true

false

The Union was made up of 20 states at the time of the Civil War. There were only 34 states at the time the Civil War broke out; the last 16 of the 50 United States were added from 1863 to 1959.

Question 17 of 30

Which Union commander of the Western Theater said, "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over"?

William Tecumseh Sherman

Sherman left a path of destruction in Georgia during his famous "March to the Sea."

Ulysses S. Grant

George Custer

Question 18 of 30

Which Confederate general said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it"?

Stonewall Jackson

Robert E. Lee

Lee began the Civil War as a major general of the Virginia state troops and was eventually named general-in-chief of all land forces of the Confederacy.

James Longstreet

Question 19 of 30

"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees," were the last words of which Confederate general?

Stonewall Jackson

General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally shot by a Confederate sharpshooter and died from complications of his injuries on May 10, 1863.

Nathan Bedford Forrest

George Pickett

Question 20 of 30

Which Union general said, "If I owned Texas and hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in hell"?

George Meade

Ambrose Burnside

Philip Sheridan

Sheridan briefly served as the military governor of Texas. Sheridan's administration of the state proved so harsh that he was declared a tyrant and removed from office by President Andrew Johnson.

Question 21 of 30

What was the leading cause of death during the American Civil War?

gunshot

disease

Disease was the cause of death of more than 400,000 soldiers, while battle wounds claimed approximately 200,000 soldiers.

suicide

Question 22 of 30

Which Confederate leader said, "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it"?

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Robert E. Lee

Jefferson Davis

Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union soldiers in 1865 and imprisoned.

Question 23 of 30

Which American author said, "Civil war was not a mere strife for territory and dominion, but a contest of civilization against barbarism"?

Frederick Douglass

The American author and former slave Frederick Douglass actively recruited free blacks in upstate New York to join the Union army, including two of his sons.

Louisa May Alcott

Mark Twain

Question 24 of 30

Which abolitionist wrote, "I am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done"?

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

John Brown

Before being hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, the Abolitionist John Brown wrote this. Within 16 months, the deadliest conflict in U.S. history had begun.

Henry Ward Beecher

Question 25 of 30

Which Constitutional amendment formally abolished slavery in the U.S.?

13th Amendment

The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude, except for punishment for a crime. The amendment was on ratified Dec. 6, 1865.

15th Amendment

17th Amendment

Question 26 of 30

Which American writer said of the Civil War, "We are not one people. We are two peoples. We are a people for freedom and a people for slavery. Between the two, conflict is inevitable"?

Walt Whitman

George William Curtis

George William Curtis wrote this in an editorial in the New York Tribune.

John Esten Cooke

Question 27 of 30

Which Civil War era politician said, "War at best is terrible, and this one of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible"?

Abraham Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln said this during a June 16, 1864, speech in Philadelphia.

Jefferson Davis

Andrew Johnson

Question 28 of 30

Which Confederate sympathizer said, "Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged"?

John Surratt

Aaron Burr

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth said this after shooting President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. The Latin phrase "sic semper tyrannis" translates to "ever thus to tyrants."

Question 29 of 30

True or false: More Americans died in the Civil War than in World War II.

true

The death toll for the Civil War was 620,000, while World War II claimed 405,000 American lives. In fact, the Civil War accounts for nearly half of the 1.26 million American deaths from all U.S. conflicts.

false

Question 30 of 30

When did the American Civil War end?

1864

1865

Robert E. Lee surrendered the last Confederate army on April 9, 1865, at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, ending the Civil War.